"Please come in". I said and she walked in cheerfully as usual. Honestly, there’s something about her and the warmth with which she talks, the elegance with which she walks and the humility with which she carries herself. She’s so bold yet subtle, young yet confident; she’s a bunch of ironies and carries them all so gracefully. She came to me for a consult with some skin issue she had, all the while that she was talking, I couldn’t stop noticing her vibrant personality and that strikingly beautiful smile.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no personal romantic interest, it’s just her nature that piqued my interest. She being a doctor herself could understand whatever I suggested to her very well and stood up to say Good bye. “You have a beautiful smile”, I said, unable to stop myself from admiring this wonderful woman.  “Thank you doctor”, she said humbly and started giggling. Gosh, I love that giggle, but asked her what was funny. She says “Every time I come in, you tell me this and I really appreciate it”. Do I? Really? Holy heaven! I didn’t even realize. “But you have such an attractive smile; I can’t help myself from staring at you. What is it that you do to your teeth?” She starts laughing and mutters “If only you knew”. Now I’m curious. I don’t even know why. But I’m still very curious to know what she meant.  After persuading her for the longest time she sits back and tells me,

“Doc, I have been undergoing treatment for my dental issues for the longest time now. Ever since I was a child I had issues with the teeth and got them all sorted. A couple of months back, my entire jaw started hurting with so many teeth paining at the same time. I thought it was probably because of the long flight travels that I took recently and living in the snow clad Denver that worsened it and thought it would subside. To my surprise- it didn’t. I took pain killers for a couple of days, that didn’t help either. Finally I decided to visit a dentist in this foreign land. I spent so much money in dollars just for the initial check up that I was a little sad. That wasn’t even the bad part; the dentist checked me up and said that there is no evident reason as to why my teeth are hurting. She said that if the pain doesn’t subside in a couple of weeks we might have to do a root canal treatment for my teeth. I was upset to hear this as I had no cavities and always maintained a good oral health. To my horror, the pain just got bad to worse and finally the dentist had to do a root canal treatment on not one but ten of my teeth. This is the Long story cut short by the way” she said smiling.  “But it didn’t stop at that”, she added, “I spent every last bit of the money I earned in India for my dental expenditure and somehow I convinced myself that it’s alright.  The worst part was that the doctors couldn’t place crowns over the root canal treated teeth which is another procedure that’s done because my teeth were still tender. So here I am, I spent around 5 full months at the dentist’s clinic to fix my teeth. It’s done partly and a big chunk is still left till all the pain subsides. I’ve been waiting since the past 8 months for it to heal completely and it has still not healed. So now I can’t eat well because my biting ability has reduced, can’t talk well because my whole teeth to teeth position is mismatched, I keep biting my tongue, cheek while talking or biting and my front teeth keep hurting while I talk.

Fortunately, I am a doctor and can’t afford to put up a sad face in front of my patients. I have to live for them and smile for them no matter what. The thought of the kind of money I will have to spend again once my teeth heal to place those crowns over the treated teeth gives me chills, but I’d do it if I get to be in a better position to chew and talk. I would be very upset for a few days and then I said to myself, you know what, forget it all, I’m going to live my life happy and with a smile no matter what, there are people out there without kidneys and limbs who still climb mountains and here it’s not life and death for me, so I better be grateful for what I have”.

I don’t know why but this whole story brought me to tears. I can’t imagine this 25 year old young woman going through so much financially, emotionally and so many other factors involved.

I wish I could do something about it. I know there are people with broken limbs and dysfunctioning kidneys and worse stories than this that make it, but maybe this was the first time I came across someone like this face to face.

Without a doubt my heart grew fonder of her here are some of the lessons I derived from her story:

1. Just be grateful.
2. Be happy- it’s an art
3. It’s ok if life is unfair

Who could tell that beautiful smile that pierced my heart had such a big story to tell.

The most wonderful message that this beautiful patient conveyed to me is something that I’m surely going to pass on to my kids and their kids and that is:
When in Doubt, Choose Grace!
- Story as retold.